I played this many years ago, very enjoyable game. But there's a bottleneck at some point where you NEED to have a high enough magic skill or you will fail the game, as far as I remember.
Depends on what route you're going for. A non-magical Elodie can still win the game if
she's great at naval combat, or has max singing skill, or inadvertently convinces her father to use a magic mirror to fuck up the evil king (and himself). Or you could have her dad get rekt, but she needs enough composure to not get baited and merced.
One of the few VNs I actually put effort into almost 100%ing. While cute, it had far , FAR too many unwinnable early game situations like the Snake and the Kid. In the version I played, it was almost impossible without cheat engine to get your trade stat high enough for the early game events. Haven't played it in a while, might fire it up and see if they actually patched any of that nonsense.
I don't think the snake can kill you, in my experience either Julianne kills it or you get healed. Never managed to pass that check, but I think it's just there to tweak your nose.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the chocolatier games. Maybe not extremely girly, but they were a staple in my household, along with already mentioned Jojo's fashion show, burger shop 1 & 2
Been playing My Time At Sandrock. Just found out the Logan Strikes Back update will not allow me to marry Fang. Reeeee. Fine, I'll stay single. Not sure if the My Time At games are considered girly. Since it's part of the farming life sim genre, I'm going to assume it is girly. Odd because the first Harvest Moon was intended for boys.
I'm surprised no one has mentioned the chocolatier games. Maybe not extremely girly, but they were a staple in my household, along with already mentioned Jojo's fashion show, burger shop 1 & 2
I played Chocolatier 3 more than a decade ago. I reamember you travelled around the world in a zeppelin. It was a match-3 kind of game but combined with strategy and management, I think.
Overall the game was neat but underrated.
The new update for My Time At Sandrock allows me to give Fang gifts. He still tells me to not give him anything. C'mon, man. Who doesn't want water in a desert town?
Did anyone play on the teen nick peripheral games site The N, more specifically play games like Avatar U, and Avatar High? these games were kind of like sims but set in schools, you were given a set number of sims and you could edit their looks a little and what their likes and interests were, sexualities for U
The main goal would be to make them good students but they each had their own interests and autonomous schedules, you could give them things to be good in school, or things that would make the other students bully them, they would fall in love, stuff like that. I never played these in their heyday, I only know the games and the N because I randomly came across them on the bluemaxima flashpoint application. View attachment 3342171
Idk if it counts as an girly or otome game since it's a gacha. But can we talk about Obey me Shall We Date? Like seriously not to start discourse but if the Devs ever gave it an ending (which I doubt it) I think the best partner would be mammon. I would get into specifics but it would be into spoiler territory and to be honest his relationship with the MC (which is literally most revolutionary than a lot of the west's attempts at making a gender neutral MC by having them having a curse that turns them into a cute sheep also the MC relationship with mammon is one of the best even if you don't romance him.
Also I have to mention the dead by Daylight dating simulator the developers launched this year I think?
Did anyone play on the teen nick peripheral games site The N, more specifically play games like Avatar U, and Avatar High? these games were kind of like sims but set in schools, you were given a set number of sims and you could edit their looks a little and what their likes and interests were, sexualities for U
The main goal would be to make them good students but they each had their own interests and autonomous schedules, you could give them things to be good in school, or things that would make the other students bully them, they would fall in love, stuff like that. I never played these in their heyday, I only know the games and the N because I randomly came across them on the bluemaxima flashpoint application. View attachment 3342171
Idk if it counts as an girly or otome game since it's a gacha. But can we talk about Obey me Shall We Date? Like seriously not to start discourse but if the Devs ever gave it an ending (which I doubt it) I think the best partner would be mammon. I would get into specifics but it would be into spoiler territory and to be honest his relationship with the MC (which is literally most revolutionary than a lot of the west's attempts at making a gender neutral MC by having them having a curse that turns them into a cute sheep also the MC relationship with mammon is one of the best even if you don't romance him.
Obey Me has been mentioned at least twice now. That said, it’s a pet peeve of mine when otome games have canon routes, so I really appreciate the freedom Obey Me gives you in being able to romance all the guys at the same time. Mammon is pretty clearly meant to be the “main” choice, and him being tsundere for the MC is definitely cute, but my personal favorite is Belphegor.
Recently played Paradigm Paradox, an otome recently released in north america for nintendo switch. I typically follow the website, Otome Kitten, for information about latest english otome. I will try to spoiler as much as I can in this post, but what I say will mostly be incoherent rambling if you havent played it.
Paradigm Paradox is an otome visual novel where you play as a teenage female superhero in a post-apocalyptic, futuristic colony. This game's characters have a lot of trauma due to inhumane scientific experimentation and violent experiences. You can date the "heroes" and you can date "villains".
I was really disappointed in this review. It felt lazy and rushed. The explanation for why the personalities of the Blooms change during transformation is in the bonus material from main menu (under Blooms Shameful History) which demonstrates the reviewer barely sought out answers for "plot holes". As far as most of these otome game reviews go, this review was the worst for a game which isnt bad.
The review writer completely ignored the primary conflict of the Ayumu route and focused too much on his protectiveness, not siscon fetish, for his younger sister. Little sister Ritsu is Ayumu's only family and he didnt want her to experience the horrors he has as a Blooms member. They made it very clear so it's extremely disappointing to see you somehow warp that as a siscon fetish. The protagonist was at her most mature (very oneesan) and combative in this route, moreso than she was with Hyuga and Ryo. It was frankly the most entertaining route for me. In Ayumu's route, protagonist defended Ritsu's autonomy as a person and stood up for herself. The turning point of their relationship was when Ayumu realizes he was being unreasonable and works together with the protagonist to come to a solution for his conflict which in turn will keep little sister Ritsu safe. His points of falling in love are when the protagonist gets upset with him throwing his life away. Ayumu is textbook tsundere so you can't take him at face value.
I most enjoyed Kamui's route for how gentle he was when it came to the protagonist's grieving. It was also the only route I felt like Lize's death was a major point since Tokio's route mainly focuses on the fear of Vectors. The conversation with the grandfather really hit home like a real family member would speak. What really tugged my heart strings was the protagonist having a flashback with Lize and saying I love you. Left me in tears. No other route has that intense of a scene for Lize (unless you count Hyuga's route in which Liza cries alone while the protagonist listens outside the door). Overall the best written route in the game. Also, doesnt this particular scene seem very reminiscent of globohomo pushing transexuality?
BASED GRANDFATHER
The protagonist is at her worst in the Mihaya route. The library scene made me want to just skip the entire route altogether (i still did it). It made zero sense for the protagonist to take Mihaya's side in the argument and it felt too anime-y, too disconnected from the rational and more reasonable reactions the protagonist has in other routes. To me it felt like the writers were trying really hard to make Mihaya's bad personality to be likable. It felt like a pity party. I was baffled that the review writer felt that Ayumu was the rude character when Ayumu reasonably placed boundaries and the protagonist broke them rebelliously which gives Ayumu reason to treat her combatively. Mihaya is just rude to everyone from the get-go for some inexplicable reason alongside muh dead parents as a cheap excuse.
Ryo's route shouldn't even exist, frankly. It did not reveal anything different from the finale and most of what he did privately could have just been in the bonus files from main menu. It was really the route that went too far with the age gap with Ryo age 26. Hyuga is 25 and Ibuki is 21. The protagonist is 16. Ryo kept having that cringe theme of saying she acted like a child. Well duh, she IS a child, creep! Ugh. As a side note, that teasing Kuramori does to the protagonist in the finale was also creepy as he is likely age 32-40. Why do the Japanese do this?
The most amusing character is Ibuki, who is aloof throughout the game and seems to smile at everything but I dont recall him laughing. Whenever the protagonist agrees with him about Vectors ruling the world, Ibuki gets a glint in his eye and like a date rape the protagonist "wakes up" later, standing next to him and staring into the distance at the world of Vectors, void if any human life, "she" apparently caused. Nice.
The developers did do their homework and keep consistency quite well in writing. I agree with the reviewer that the romance is pretty barebones. I think the problem is that most otome have romance throughout routes but this game is so troubled by the apocalyptic nature of it all that there really isnt time for love. Any falling in love is either subtle or sudden so it feels unnatural.
Some people may find Paradigm Paradox preferable because not a lot of otome spend a lot of time on character development as this game does. Characters are always met with moral conflict and have to come up with solutions or they literally fuckin die. Frankly, it made doing multiple routes tiring but that's what happens when you have 8-9 routes covering the same time period and no dues ex machina memory of previous playthroughs. It's one of those games where you probably aren't expected to sit through each route attentively. Devs prob just expect people to pick a favorite cute face and skip text other routes for the finale.
On a final note, I was really surprised this game didn't do any weird tranny or lesbian shit due to the nature of the superheroes. All of the Blooms boys are very much aware how weird transforming into girls is except Ibuki, who takes it in stride. However, even Ibuki chooses to maintain male form when he falls in love with the protagonist. Based. Piofoire vibes with heterosexuality ultimately saving the world.
i love the new style boutique games and the rhythmn heaven franchise. the latter is so cute and endearing and pretty fun
also i love breath of the wild. cooking and getting and upgrading the outfits and walking and climbing through the map is super relaxing.
Back when I didn't know anything about asia market games I used to see these games with little anime girls in gaming sites and thought those were games for girls.
Boy was I wrong, tho not as much as a coworker who bought a copy of neko-para for his niece.
I really love old NDS "Girl" games. I use a emulator mostly (haven't played in a bit though). Has anyone played the Style Savvy games? They are the only fashion/store management games with clothing that I like.
Old NDS games that I really loved are the Imagine Games, Imagine Fashion designer, Teacher etc. I loved those janky ass games so much.
Right now all I play is Sims though, mainly sims 4 (horrible choice I know but I love it so much).
Screenshot is Style Savvy (the first game), I have so many amazing memories attached to this game.
I've read (most) of the Idea Factory otomes on the Switch because I'm a big gay pussy faggot and I hit a point where I realized all of the heroines looked and acted the same. It would make a lot more sense if they had weaker personalities like other VNs do to make it a self-insert but if you're reading it like a romance novel like I do it'll get on your nerves a bit. It might tend to stick out to me more because I slammed through the entire Code: Realize series including the fandiscs one after another.
I just reached Lupin route of Code: Realize. Hoping it turns out good because I want to know where poison girl's daddy went. Speaking of protagonists wondering where their fathers went... (and I will use spoiler blurs and boxes, promise)
I just started playing Lover Pretend, a recently released otome for Nintendo Switch (it was leaked by pirates but official release date is December 1, 2022).
Lover Pretend is about a female protagonist who dreams of becoming screenwriter. She is a liberal arts student (wew lad) and a professor (1 of the 5 love interests) is her mentor. The protagonist's deceased mother was once a screenwriter and before she had passed nine years prior, frequently spoke of her beloved work screenwriting a single film called "Pretend to Love". The protagonist wants to be like her mother. Protagonist also has no idea who her father is. The game is very heavy on entertainment industry business so expect scandals, annoying fangirls, and weird shit.
Of course, otomes being otome, there are love interests: 5 lads, 5 routes. This otome does state if characters have sex and does show kissing on-screen.
The gimmick of Lover Pretend is that there are "Love Pretend" events in the game where you are essentially "cross-examined" like Ace Attorney psychlocks system. You need to convince others of an idea and simply select one of two dialogue prompts to proceed (there is a time limit but you can pause the game using the home button lol). The more puzzle pieces that fall in the background, the better you are doing. Of course if you mess up, the puzzle pieces return (more autism, more puzzle pieces, amirite?). It really feels like a police interrogation rather than a silly lighthearted thing, so I did not like it. Luckily, the game will always prompt you to save immediately before one starts and you have the option to skip ALL of them after your first "happy end" playthrough.
I always start every otome just choosing whatever I feel at heart before using guides. This does have me mostly with bad ends, sometimes normal ends, and rarely best ends. Sometimes games punish you for being honest (hint: this is one of them) but honestly it's just fun to see which love interest you naturally vibe with.
This time I ended up with a "womanizer" type love interest who had an expectedly dramatic route. Very sweet route, predictable of overly attractive types but respectful of their work. The scene where the protagonist admits her love for him had me crying. I was all-in until during a post-credits scene, the husbando approaches you with a post-card photo of ...his tranny male-to-female "mother". OH JOY.
The protagonist had suspected the love interest's father of also being her father since the love interest's father was a womanizer (like father, like son). As it turned out, the father was actually just "practicing" to see how women react to mens advances so when he transitioned, he could be the best offensive female caricature he could be. Also he has no balls and can't be your father. No incest for you!
The protagonist has no parents or grandparents, so I felt bad at seeing how happy she was to meet the husbando's "mothers" just to have ANY family. You get funny dialogue from husbando when she tries to use proper pronouns. The husbando's real mother immediately divorced the tranny dad. Based True and Honest matriarch female.
Would also like to add that Aksys Games has an unfortunately increasing trend lately where they insert woke shit or Internet memes which will, of course, date the game. Maybe one day we'll get some translators who aren't from Reddit giving visual novels the respectful translation they deserve...
One thing I do is listen to what the character voice and translate it myself using my magical weeb retard powers (i take my phone out and have Google Translate the speech). The direct translation is always more conservative and simple as Japanese simply do not speak like this:
Overall, i'm not feeling it with this game. I think it's too easy to get a bad end. There are 5 bad ends or so per character including common route bad end. Even if you have the "right answer" animation for standard dialogue prompts (that can be turned on in settings), you are still relatively shooting in the dark for Love Pretend events that can make or break your success at wooing your guy. Someone looking for a relaxing, lazy otome might want to look elsewhere. Otherwise, break out those walkthroughs.
Its not exactly girly but Devil Express is okay if you ever feel like giving it a try. I don't know anything about the creators though so if one of them is a troon or Twitter sperg I disavow all responsibility.
Well I’m not sure if it’s girly but a recent favorite of mine has to be a hat in time a game that reignited my love of platformers all over again for real if you need to kill a good 10 hours this is a safe bet for sure
But animal crossing and stardew valley will always hold a place in my cold heart
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